The Bible: Portable Like Never Before

Last night a friend posted this on my Facebook page:

Hmmm.....Wonder what would happen if we treated our BIBLE like we treat our CELL PHONE? What will happen if... we CARRY it everywhere we go; flip through it throughout the day; went home to get it if we FORGOT it; RECEIVED messages from the text; COULDN'T live WITHOUT it; GAVE it to KIDS as gifts; used it in case of emergency? One more thing, it would NEVER be disconnected. JESUS has already paid the bill. Pass this on cause it's so true...thought this was worth re-posting.

I'm not a fan of the "post this in your status if you've lost someone to cancer" or "if you love Jesus you'll forward this" stuff, but I like the simple challenge this one presented. What if . . . we valued the Word of God as much as we value our gadgets?  What if . . . we stayed in touch with God as often as we do with our Facebook "friends" (some of whom I've never met nor really know who they are)?  What if . . . we spent as much time in the Word as we do online every day?  And so on and so on, you get the picture. 

Our Lord told us "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt 6:21).  I've heard a more 21st century version of this: what you spend your time doing shows what your values and priorities are.  If we sat down and crunched the numbers, I'm sure many of us--myself included--would be disappointed at how little time we spend in the Word each day versus how much time we think we spend. 

So now that I've beat us all up for being bad Christians, let me flip it around (as all good sermons should) to a positive note.  Hearkening back to those gadgets mentioned above, it's now easier than at any time in history to stay plugged-in to your bible.  I'll share some of the ways I try to keep Scripture in front of my eyes throughout the day. 

I use the Daily Bible app by JoanSoft on my smart phone.  As the name implies, it sends a daily verse to your phone, which you can then share--should you be so inclined--on Facebook and other social media.  I've also got Olive Tree's Bible Reader software on my smart phone.  It comes with the King James translation for free, then you can purchase other translations if you like.  Olive Tree also has tons of other bible related software for smart phones and other mobile devices.  I purchased the Greek New Testament with bible dictionary and parsing included.  Now when the pastor makes a reference to "the original Greek text" I can look it up for myself on my phone (which works best if you've actually studied Greek, which I have; not boasting, just sayin').  If I'm going to read the bible on my phone, though, the app I like best is The Bible App by lifechurch.tv.  This is YouVersion's portable version of their bible software.  I'm not sure where the lifechurch.tv comes in, but that's the one you'll want to look for when you're browsing the market for apps.  This bible app has lots and lots of free translations available, some of them are downloadable to your phone and thus available offline (in case you don't have good cell reception in church).  Depending on how old school or neu skool you are, these apps are great options in lieu of bringing an actual bible to church with you. 

On Facebook I have a fair number of christian pages in my news feed, so I'm constantly getting quotes from Scripture throughout the day.  I make a point of taking the time to read every one; otherwise, what's the point, right?  The ones I subscribe to are JesusDaily, YouVersion, The Bible, and GodVine.  I'm sure there are more out there, these are just the one's I've come across and "liked." 

So back to the "bible challenge" my friend posted on my Facebook page.  Unlike most of those convicting challenges that get passed around the Internet, I felt pretty good about myself after reading this one.  That's not to paint myself in the light of a holier than thou, all that and a bag of chips christian.  But I do always have a bible with me and I do try really hard to read it daily, even if it's just the little snippet quoted by my daily devotional.  Obviously I've got great room for improvement but, as the saying goes, "I'm not yet where I want to be, but thank goodness I'm not where I was." 

ESV Study Bible

My goal before starting ministry school in the Fall is to finish reading the Bible.  I just finished the book of Ezekiel and picked up a reading plan at YouVersion that will take me through Proverbs and Psalms in one month.  I’ve already read the New Testament, so I just need to finish the Old Testament and Psalms and I’ll be done.  

Things were going much faster before my wife bought me the ESV Study Bible.  I’d previously been reading from my Green Bible and making all my highlights and notes in it.  [Truth be told, it’s one of probably 10 Bibles that I own, but I’d chosen it to be my primary “read through the Bible and mark it up” Bible.]  Before I began reading each successive book in the Bible, I’d consult the Oxford Guide to the Bible for background information, cultural context and so on.  My ESV Study Bible has changed all that.

The ESV Study Bible is a typical study Bible with extensive notes, cross-references, charts, supplemental info and so on.  But to me, its best feature is that it’s available online!  So when it gives a cross-reference, rather than holding my place and flipping pages to find the reference, I simply click on the hyperlink and a pop-up window displays the cross-referenced verse.  Easy!  Another feature that I really enjoy is that you can have the Bible read to you by simply clicking a button.  I’m doing this for Psalms.  I’m not much of a poetry guy and I’m finding it easier to read the Psalms by having them read to me while I follow along with the text (either on the computer screen or in the Bible itself).

I’m one of those intellectual, perpetual student types that prefers the feel of an actual book in my hands as opposed to reading a digital copy.  However, with the greater ease of having notes and references hyperlinked, I’m finding that I prefer the online version of the ESV Study Bible over the tome itself.  And it is a tome--I should put it on the scales and see how much it weighs. 

So, with all the notes typical of a study Bible and the ease of the hyperlinked cross-references, my Bible reading has slowed considerably as I avail myself of all these great features.  The flip side of that, though, is that I’m doing a much more in-depth reading than I was previously in my Green Bible.  I had intended to put-off this more in-depth reading for my second trip through the Bible.  This first read-through is intended to familiarize myself with the entire Bible and allow me to say “yes, I’ve read the whole thing.”  I started a Bible-in-a-year reading plan last year and, obviously, came up short.  So I’m using the start of ministry school as my new target date for completing my read-through.  Plus, I figure that before I graduate I’ll be expected to have read the entire thing anyway, so this way I’ll have a leg up.

The Real, the Unreal & the Sureal

I was sharing with my wife the other day how sometimes in life I've reached points where I just can't imagine what the next season of life will feel like.  The best example of that I have is when I got out of the Army after four years.  I had been in for what seemed like so long and life had changed a lot in those four years.  I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have my life back again and to be able to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.  Eventually, of course, my release date came and I did in fact pass beyond that threshold into that next, unimaginable season of life.

I was up at PESM this past Monday for a tour of sorts.  I'd told Pastor Darrell that I wanted to get up to PESM before the start of classes so I could familiarize myself with the buildings, etc. so I wouldn't be so wide-eyed and mystified when I showed up for the start of classes.  Darrell suggested I come up during the denomination's annual conference and he'd show me around.  So that's what we did.  As I looked into and walked around in the various buildings where I'd be eating, sleeping and learning I again had that surreal sense of "I just can't imagine what it will be like to actually be here."  I've no doubt that I will--like times before--pass that threshold and make the new, unknown season my own.

 On the "it feels real" side of things, I've already received sillibi for two of the classes we'll be taking this year.  I eagerly got on Amazon.com to look for the assigned books.  Since several were out of print, the search was a bit more challenging than looking for last year's New York Times' best sellers.  I eventually found all five books, three were available used only through private sellers.  To cut costs, I bought used books in "very good" condition where I could.  The frugal side of me was very pleased when my purchase of all five books came to $42.50.  Needless to say, we've all payed more than that for a single text book at some point in our past; who would have thought that I'd manage such a deal some twenty years later! 

Algorithm developed by Israeli scholars sheds light on the Bible's authorship

Algorithm developed by Israeli scholars sheds light on the Bible's authorship

This article was in today's local paper and I came across it online as well. As exciting as it is to see what this software can do with the Old Testament, I'm really excited to imagine what it might find in the New Testament. Could it help us identify the anonymous author of the book of Hebrews? Would it identify a common author of the Gospel of John, the Johannine epistles and John's Apocalypse? What about the relationship between Jude and First and Second Peter that scholars have wrestled with for so long, finding just as many significant similarities as they find significant differences?  Would we finally be able to say with certainty which of the deutero-Pauline epistles were truly written by the Apostle and which are pseudographs?   At the very least, it looks like this software will be one more (significant!) tool in the toolbox of biblical philologists.  Cool and exciting stuff!!

Learning from Moses

It is said that God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.  Moses is often a standard example of this: God chose an elderly, stuttering shepherd to be His envoy to Pharaoh and to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the promised land.  Despite all of Moses’ insistence that he was not the man for the job, God equipped him so that he could be.  Moses heard the call, he just needed some reassurance that the destination outside his comfort zone was indeed where God was leading him.  

So what did all this mean in a more nuts-and-bolts, rubber-meets-the-road, boots-on-the-ground reality?  It means that I now feel open to outcomes that I had previously dismissed as not compatible with my talents, with who I am and with how I relate to others.  I had previously dismissed the possibility of going to PESM, getting ordained and going to work for one of my denomination’s churches as a pastor.  Now I’m open to that if that’s where God wants me.  I had previously dismissed pursuing an MDiv degree since its main purpose it to equip one for full time ministry and church leadership (I wanted an MA in Biblical Studies & Theology so I could get a teaching job).  Now I’m thinking that an MDiv is the degree I should pursue since it will prepare me for both teaching and ministry, so that too has been added to the list of “if that’s where God wants me.”  

I discussed all this with one of my pastors.  I was concerned that I was considering attending PESM in order to see what God will do with that, rather than entering with the intent to become an ordained pastor and lead a church--which is basically PESM’s primary mission.  I didn’t want to give the impression that I was entering under false pretenses.  My pastor allayed those concerns and was actually encouraging and excited about this journey I was proposing.  He wrote my letter of reference and sent it in and I mailed in my application.  

A few weeks later my pastor told me I was “in” after the PESM faculty met and agreed to raise their enrollment cap.  Had they not done so, I would have had to wait another year to get in.  Now I’m just waiting on whatever official “you’re in the program” material that new students get--info on residency, required books, etc.  

God doesn't need to stop and ask directions; I do

Not surprisingly, I went back to my previous research about attending seminary.  My “plan” was to get an advanced degree in Biblical Studies & Theology and teach at a college, university or seminary.  This would put me back in the element I enjoyed most--academia--as well as give me a work & life schedule that suited me best:  a school schedule (work Monday through Friday with weekends, holidays and summers off).  Seminary was, of course, no cheaper than when I’d researched it months earlier.  The option to attend my denomination’s School of Ministry came up a few times.  I’d originally poo-pooed this option because the School is not accredited by any agency and I didn’t see a degree from there getting me a teaching job anywhere.  The Pacific Evangelical School of Ministry (PESM) is designed to produce pastors for our denomination and that’s really not what I was looking for.


Then, over the course of several weeks, a couple things occurred to me.  First, I was trying to formulate all these plans of what to do with my life without considering what God wanted me to do with my life.  Second, my dismissing PESM as a viable seminary option was born out of my own intellectual & academic snobbery--just because the School wasn’t accredited didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot I could learn there.  Third, PESM’s schedule and cost were doable for my family.  


As I prayed about this and discussed it with my wife, more “nudges” in the direction of PESM occurred, the greatest of which was a desire to give the whole thing over to God and let Him decide.  I had an overwhelming realization that my Plan B--as well intentioned and oriented toward God and His Kingdom as it was--would not bear its intended fruit if it was not within God’s will for my life.  Despite my control freak nature, God’s grace gave me a sense of peace as I considered a path which I had so easily dismissed just a few months earlier.  For the first time in my life, I felt like I was giving something to God and He was actually taking it and leading me.  For the first time in my life, I felt peace about not being in control.  In fact, I felt a sense of relief that God was navigating and I didn’t have to worry about the route or its destination, I just had to be willing to come along for the ride.  

This is how it all started, innocently enough

“You should go to seminary.”  

This was my wife’s response to me when I shared with her some bit of Bible trivia I’d come across in a book I was reading.  Looking back, I don’t know that it was my wife speaking to me so much as it was God speaking to me through her.  This was fairly evident when she expressed such surprise that I’d taken her off-hand remark and spent most of the weekend researching seminaries in Oregon and what it might look like for me to attend.  

This initial flurry of activity turned out to be nothing more than that.  We looked at the cost, our budget and the season of life our family was in.  We decided that there was no way for me to attend seminary without taking out student loans, something my wife was loath to do given that we’d just paid off my grad school loans a few years ago.  I was disappointed.  Having been out of academia for 14 years--something I was originally planning on spending my whole life in--I was feeling a desire to return.  I had also been recently considering how I could be doing so much more for my church and God’s Kingdom with my gifts of teaching and knowledge.  God designed me to be a teacher, a researcher, an academic and I was currently doing little to nothing with these talents.  

So for the time being I put away dreams of going to seminary.  Still, every time I’d hear someone mention seminary or see an advertisement for one, I’d go back to my research notes, back to those web sites I’d visited before.  But then I’d remind myself that this wasn’t the proper season and I’d again push it to the back of my mind.  

I enjoy my current position at work--an administrative desk job with a flex schedule.  It is, though, a rotational position, meaning that I could rotate back to my original position which involves shift work, including nights and weekends.  It’s not that I’m “too good” for that, but I’ve done my fair share of those odd, life-interrupting schedules over the years and I’m thinking that I don’t care to do that again ever, if possible.  A temporary, two month reassignment back to my original position in early 2011 really confirmed for me that that kind of schedule is simply not conducive to what I want for me or my family.  

I needed a Plan B.